Right now, I'm most interested in how people dealt with the realization that the universe wasn't how they had pictured it, because up until the point of Copernicus' heliocentric cosmological theory, the Ptolemaic geocentric model was the reigning cosmology, and it was actually very well understood by the general populace. Although non-astronomers today have a relatively limited understanding of the universe, people in the Renaissance understood their universe quite well because it was so intricately woven into religion and society. (Science and religion actually worked together instead of being seen as opposing ideologies. Weird, eh?) People understood the earth to be the central focus of God's existence because it was the center of the universe. They perceived a series of concentric spheres—one for each of the planets, one for the fixed stars, and the Primum Mobile at the outermost, which was the location of God. Thus the earth, although it was the center of God's creation, was also the furthest point in the universe from Him. (To be even more specific, the center of the earth was the absolute furthest point in the universe from God, which is the origin of the idea of hell being located in the middle of the earth.) This universe system accorded with the concept of the Great Chain of Being, which described the hierarchical structure of matter and life. Men could gain salvation, and ascend the levels of this hierarchy, and thus the spheres of the universe. The Great Chain of Being was the foundation for Medieval and Renaissance social structures because it outlined the hierarchy of kings, nobles, and common men.
How's that for a pervading universe system? It had its fingers in science, religion, and sociopolitical structure! (I can't help but think how nice it would be to have such a unifying cosmology nowadays ... even though theirs was completely wrong.)
Now imagine you're living in the Renaissance, and this is how you understand the universe. It not only organizes your life, but it gives you a sense of your place within it and of your eternal potential. Then, imagine that you find out that the earth is no longer the center of the universe, thus man no longer appears to be the central focus of God's creations. Suddenly, this concept that gave you place and purpose, and was furthermore tied to social hierarchies, isn't real. How would you deal with that? How did people negotiate the transition from one universe view to another? Specifically, how did it impact individuals' relationship with God?
Some of the texts that have been recommended to me for my research have been The Blazing World and Sociable Letters by Margaret Cavendish, Social Relations by Sir Thomas More, works by Francis Bacon, poetry and sermons by John Donne, works by John Milton, works by George Herbert, Psalms translations by Mary Sidney, and translations of the Bible. I also think that certain works by Alexander Pope in the early 1700s, particularly his Essay on Man, will shed some light on the transition away from the Renaissance cosmological view. I may also look at Rousseau and Voltaire's responses to the Essay.
So that's where my project is right now, with a research question focused on texts. I still plan on taking advantage of the location by looking at how these changes were reflected in art, and I'd still like to ask people (particularly clergy) about the physical location of God and the place and purpose of man within the scope of the universe, but I don't think that'll figure directly into my specific, focused, narrow research question that I love so very, very much.
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